The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music
is last year’s release The Platinum
Collection, Frank Sinatra’s three-discer from what’s probably his artistic
peak, his 1953 – 1961 tenure on Capitol Records:

By now you may have heard about the Federal Communications Commission’s
ruling yesterday that Voice-over
Internet Protocol telephony providers have about four months to offer the sort
of standard 911 service you get from your telco – you dial in and you’re
automatically connected to an emergency dispatcher, and the address you’re
calling from shows up on their screen.

First CoffeeSM is all for VoIP telephony
providers including 911 in their services, favors making it an opt-out feature
instead of opt-in, and believes the four Bells which control the nation’s 911
system should be required to strike reasonable deals to allow VoIP providers to
offer 911 to their customers.

The Heartless Bastard agrees.

First CoffeeSM views government regulation as a
necessary evil, many things are better off left to the common sense and
personal freedom of Americans, who can be trusted to act in their own best
interests far more frequently than government can be trusted to legislate it
for them and who learn by suffering consequences when they do not, and notes
that in recent weeks VoIP providers have, in fact, been striking deals with
Bells to gain 911 access for their customers.

Okay, everybody knew the FCC’s ruling was imminent, maybe
Vonage and SkyRocket, two of the more prominent VoIPers to get 911 access deals
were just staying a step ahead of legislation, and maybe they wouldn’t have
been so keen to get deals done if they hadn’t seen the FCC in their rear-view
mirrors.

But the fact is that before the FCC issued a rather
draconian 120-day deadline for providing standard 911 deals were being made,
and the VoIP industry was moving a lot faster to get standard 911 than the
cellular industry, which didn’t have it for years and years.

Maybe the FCC could have said six months to a year, since
once you have a VoIP provider offering standard 911 customers have the option
available to them.In that case the
market can take over and weed out the responsible carriers from the
irresponsible ones.

The Heartless Bastard finds this the best solution.

Anyway, the Bells will be more or less forced to negotiate
in good faith with the VoIPers, and First CoffeeSM thinks extensions
will be fairly generously granted to companies who are genuinely trying to get something
done, the FCC will realistically only shut down those scofflaws who don’t even
pretend to be in serious negotiations or on a timetable to include standard
911. People like that don’t need to be offering VoIP in the first place. Good riddance
to ‘em.

Yesterday before issuing the ruling the Commission heard
from Florida resident Cheryl Waller who recounted, in heartbreaking detail, how
in March her three and a half-month old daughter Julia died after she stopped
breathing, and Waller tried to call 911 from her Vonage connection, reached a
sheriff’s administrative office, took what by the
account First CoffeeSM’s seen “seconds” to find a 911-enabled
phone and call emergency personnel.By
the time help arrived the child had, sadly, died.

The Heartless Bastard wipes his eyes, but has a few
questions here.

First CoffeeSM is a father of three, and can’t
imagine the grief Mrs. Waller must be feeling. There’s nothing but sympathy for
her loss. A mere two months on the pain must still be raw.

It’s understandable that she would want to testify before
the commission, she could feel she’s doing something give her daughter’s death
meaning, something to help other parents avoid the devastation she’s suffering.

It’s the FCC which is to blame for exploiting a lachrymose
appeal to sentiment to herald what’s supposed to be a fair, logical ruling.

The Heartless Bastard is aware of two or three instances, is
sure there are a few more, where people with VoIP phones tried to call 911 and
weren’t connected to an emergency dispatcher. This is the first death he can
recall connected with such a situation. The question, since we’re imposing government
fiat to fix this problem affecting such a huge swath of the population, is who’s
at fault?

Right. If you believe that’s the question keep believing everything
you see on CBS and read in Newsweek. Oh that’s what the
question should be, but who wants to be seen as the Heartless Bastard, poking
around and asking uncomfortable questions which might offend the grieving
mother?

First CoffeeSMreads
where in the Waller case Vonage’s 911 calls were directed to a Volusia County Sheriff’s
administrative number, not emergency personnel. That problem has evidently been
rectified.

So putting on the Heartless Bastard hat for a minute – hm, fits
uncomfortably well – it’s fair to ask if the Wallers did the “due diligence” to
ascertain the level of 911 service they were receiving with their free decision
to use Vonage. Since Ms. Waller’s been quoted as saying “I think we lost our
daughter because of this,” a thinly-veiled way of saying “Vonage is responsible
for the death of our infant daughter,” the Heartless Bastard would ask if that
is, in fact, what the responding emergency personnel corroborated – “If we had been called ____ seconds
sooner we would have saved her life, the time you took to find a 911-enabled phone
is what cost your daughter her life?” If anybody’s seen the medical evaluation
of the Waller child please contact
First CoffeeSM.

Blaming Vonage for the death of a three-month old girl when
there are so many other variables we haven’t seen examined strikes even the
Heartless Bastard as unfair. Corporations have feelings too. Of course if
Vonage deliberately misled the Wallers on what they were getting with the 911 service, to the stake with them, First CoffeeSM
will light the

First TorchSM

.

First CoffeeSM hasn’t seen the Vonage information
Ms. Waller saw, but the Heartless Bastard suspects that if there were
legally actionable negligence on the part of Vonage – if they really were responsible
for Julia’s death – some lawyer would have sniffed it out by now. A dead baby is chum in the water for lawyers.

If First CoffeeSM had VoIP and his child had a
medical emergency, and he tried to call 911, was told to try again, spent
seconds finding a 911-enabled phone to call emergency personnel who arrive to
find a dead child, most likely there would be the naturally-occurring, if probably
unjustified guilt of “Oh it’s my fault, I shouldn’t have tried to save money on
long-distance by using VoIP.” A careful inquiry would be needed to show whether
call time would have made any difference at all.

But the temptation to blame someone, something, anyone, anything – a cruel uncaring God, the VoIP provider – would be overwhelming. As
rational beings humans need reasons, understandings of “why?” especially for senseless death. But nothing the
Heartless Bastard or First CoffeeSM’s seen confirms that the 911 delay
was the cause of, or even a contributing factor to, Julia Waller’s death.

To be fair to everyone involved, the Wallers, Vonage, the millions
of Americans who want VoIP, what’s needed is a thorough examination of the VoIP
package, informational and promotional materials and specific 911
representations Vonage offered to the Wallers and to check for discrepancies
with what was actually provided, an accounting of the Wallers’ installation of
the system, a medical determination of the cause and time of the child’s death
– all First CoffeeSM has heard is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome,
basically a medical catch-all for “We have no idea what happened” – and then for
an impartial commission to sift the evidence and issue an even-handed report
laying out the facts of the matter and determining what happened when and what the
parents, Fate and Vonage’s roles or non-roles in the tragedy actually were.

But that would mean being Heartless Bastards as long as
there’s a mother crying for her dead child in the room. Comfort the mother,
gently escort her to her supportive family back at home, close the door,
examine all the facts at hand and make sensible policy.

First CoffeeSM would like to reassure readers
that neither Michael Isikoff nor Newsweek
magazine were used as sources for this column.